Over the last week, Trigg County saw the full range of extremes in winter weather. From windstorms on Tuesday and freezing rain and 20-degree temperatures Wednesday, temperatures flirted with the 70-degree mark on February 4.

Meteorologist Andy Ulrich of The Cadiz Weather’s AccuWeather Forecasting Service said that severe weather began January 29 when an “unusually strong” cold front entered the area previously dominated by a warm air mass. He said that AccuWeather recorded the strongest gust of the evening at seven o’clock at 52 miles-per-hour. Sustained winds for that storm leveled at 20-25 miles-per-hour.

With temperatures plummeting on Wednesday night, precipitation turned to freezing rain for about four or five hours, according to Ulrich.

“The front was as strong as we thought, but it moved on quickly,” said Ulrich. “A south wind forced the front to retreat eastward and out of the area.”

Monday offered unseasonably warm weather, possibly into the 70’s with more of the same expected Tuesday. Ulrich attributed the warm days to the same southern wind bringing warm moist air to the area.

Trigg County Public Information Officer Matt Ledford reported little damage from the week’s extremes. “The Recreation Complex has most of the damage that I know of. Part of the equipment shed saw some roof damage. We had a dugout that lost a roof and lost a tree with the wind.”

Ledford added that Highway 525 saw a tree downed across the road, but crews removed it quickly. The road did not require closure. Ledford reported no wrecks or fires during the week.

Pennyrile Electric saw a busy night on Tuesday with the windstorm. Spokesperson Brent Gilkey said that within Trigg County, 800 customers lost power for a period of the evening.

“Some of the hardest hit areas were the State Park/Blue Springs area, Donaldson Creek and South Road. We worked through the night with all linemen out. By midnight, less than 100 customers were out, and by 6 a.m. all service had been restored,” said Gilkey. He attributed the outage to four electrical poles snapping from high winds.